Strangely, his blossoming national team career was abruptly cut short at the age of 21. Click below to read about this and the many other intrigues that made up the persona also called Nigeria’s Dean of defence by the late Ernest Okonkwo…….
“At the moment, Yisa Sofoluwe is the most versatile full back in Nigeria. Very much like Nduka Ugbade, he was a right-footed player, playing in a left-back position until recently when we saw him play at right-back for his Abiola Babes FC.
Whoever made this conversion must be given credit for opening up limitless possibilities for Yisa’s imaginative game. Yisa is the neatest and the most calculative tackler in the country today. His clearances are hardly ever hurried. He plays with a confidence that reminds me of Franz Beckenbauer in his playing days. In the air, he’s slightly above average, but at 5’8” he stands a little on the short side particularly when he has to face tall, excellent headers of the ball like Yomi Bamiro, Peter Anieke and so on.
He’s very fast and times his early tackles very well. Yisa is an adaptable full back. He could play static against a dangerous winger, marking him out of the game. He could also play as an attacking full back giving invaluable support to his forwards with well-timed, overlapping runs.
There are only two players in the country who could rate as better passers of the ball than Sofoluwe: Friday Ekpo and Osaro Obabaifo. He is an excellent passer of the ball over any distance. He also has powerful accurate shots. He can bend the ball with the inside as well as the outside of his foot. His greatest asset is his vision.
From his position on the field, he manages to have a clear picture of everything happening on the field around him. He covers up his mates very well. With all these qualities, he will be any coach’s dream player anywhere in the world.”
The above was an xray of Yisa Sofoluwe’s ability and talent during his playing days by Segun Odegbami, former Green Eagles captain and himself arguably, one of Nigeria’s best players of all time.
The story of Sofoluwe, from humble beginnings, is a case of opportunity meeting preparation to translate into success. Like every little boy in the Ebute Metta area of Lagos, famed for producing great players for Nigeria over the years, he started playing on the street and in all the age grade competitions of the early 1970s. He finally teamed up with ITT of Lagos under the tutelage of Coach Sessy Arsenal in the state amateur league but, like a goldfish, he had no hiding place. The team played its matches at the UAC Play Ground (now Teslim Balogun stadium) which is across the road from the then newly built National Stadium where the cream of Nigerian football displayed their talents to the adulation of millions of their fanatical fans.
The young Sofoluwe could only look on in envy but was determined to one day also play at the highest level and command the love of adoring fans who will lustily sing his praise. His talent shone through with each performance and everyone knew it was only a matter of time before he moved on to the big leagues.
Recognition came out of the blues for Sofoluwe. Even though he was still an amateur player, he got an invitation to the Flying Eagles team which had just qualified for the U-20 World Cup in Mexico.
“The invitation came as a surprise. It was the first time Nigeria had qualified for a FIFA World Cup and the whole nation wanted the team to go with the best players possible so I learnt that the Lagos state chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) had forwarded my name to the NFA as well as the coaches to be included in the team. I got called up and went to join them in Ibadan where the team was preparing for the two-legged fixture against Ivory Coast to determine the African champions. I met players like Paul Okoku, the Olukanni brothers Femi and Segun as well as a couple of other players with whom I was already familiar having played various youth competitions together. I trained with them and the coaches liked what they saw and that was how I got into the team. I played on the left flank as left full-back and blended beautifully with Chibuzor Ehilegbu and Humphrey Edobor and we got our two goals in the 2-2 draw away in Abidjan from our side of the pitch. We won the return leg 2-1 in Lagos and were crowned African champions and thus we were set for Mexico,” Sofoluwe recalled.
At Mexico, the team did creditably well but were eliminated after the group stages, having won one and drawn another of their three games. On returning from Mexico, it was obvious Sofoluwe had become a very big fish in ITT’s little pond and just a matter of time before the big teams started to knock on his door.
That call, to move on to bigger things, came sooner than expected and it was to Abiola Babes bankrolled by billionaire MKO Abiola that he moved at the start of the 1984 league season. Finally, from the obscure amateur leagues, Sofoluwe was playing in the big leagues and rubbing shoulders with the big stars that he had only watched from afar a few years back.
He also got invited to the Green Eagles preparing for the 1984 African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast. He was one of five players from the Flying Eagles to make the final cut, the others being Chibuzor Ehilegbu, Paul Okoku, Tarila Okorowanta and Humphrey Edobor.
He was a key figure in coach Adegboye Onigbinde’s band of mostly rookie players who went all the way to the final of the competition before succumbing to the vastly superior Camerounians. They did not win the AFCON but the boys won the heart of a grateful nation which was smarting from the humiliating ouster of the Green Eagles in 1982 at the group stages despite being the defending champions.
At club level, Sofoluwe became an integral part of the Abiola Babes team that reached four successive FA Cup finals between 1984 and 1987, winning twice. His fame as one of the most intelligent defenders in the game had gone far and wide, prompting the late ace radio commentator Ernest Okonkwo to nickname him ‘Minister of Defence’.
“How the nickname came about I didn’t know. I just know that they said it was Okonkwo who gave me the nickname and it quickly spread like wildfire. Yet, I had never met him in all those years until we went to Morocco for the Nations Cup in 1988. At the lobby of the team’s hotel one day, I was passing by when somebody called my name. Seeing he was a Nigerian, I went over to greet him. He then told me he was Ernest Okonkwo and that he worked for Radio Nigeria. So it dawned on me that this was the man who gave me that name that has stuck to me like a second skin. Today, some people still call me by that nickname. Of course I was happy to finally meet him and we became good friends until he passed away.”
At Maroc ’88, Yisa came up against the same Cameroun from four years earlier and, again, the Camerounians ran out victorious albeit in controversial circumstances.
“Till today, I don’t know why the referee disallowed Henry Nwosu’s very good goal and how he conjured a penalty for Cameroun. We lost the final but our heads were held high especially with the performance against Algeria in the semi-final.”
Next up was the preparation for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Yisa had become a super regular in the team and, at just 21, was one of the senior players. The Green Eagles went on a playing tour of Germany under new coach Manfred Hoener who Sofoluwe accused of having little or no knowledge of Nigerian football and footballers.
“That is my fear today when people talk about hiring a foreign coach. When we got to Germany, the coach asked me to go and play in midfield despite the fact that he was with us in Morocco during the Nations Cup and saw that I played in defence. I complained but he said that’s where he wanted me to play. I complied and did my utmost best, even drawing commendation from the same Hoener that I performed well in the middle. However, on our return to Nigeria, we had a friendly game with Julius Berger at Onikan Stadium and the coach said I was going to play at left-full back. At that point I knew he was up to something but I went ahead and played. We drew 2-2 and when the final list was released, my name was omitted. I was pained but not surprised. I had seen the handwriting on the wall.”
That episode marked the end of Sofoluwe’s national team career but he was soon on the way to Belgium to start his professional career. However a combination of bad choices and dubious agents ensured he never got to the heights his talents promised.
Sofoluwe still regards the two AFCON finals matches against Cameroun in 1984 and 1988 as his toughest games ever. And, he recalls with a twinkle, a game against Ghana in Kaduna in which he got the ‘Minister of Defence’ sobriquet as another tough cracker he’ll remember with fondness.
We may never know how far Sofoluwe would have gone in his career at club and international levels but this 47 year old native of Abeokuta, Ogun state brought joy to many who saw him play and re-defined the art of defending such that the unimitable Ernest Okonkwo gave him another sobriquet of “Dean of defence.”
COMMENTS